Mike Fleming

UPDATE, 4:22 PM: TOLDJA! Look what Terry Gilliam posted on his Facebook wall this afternoon:

Announcement! I’m heading of to Bucharest to start work on my new film, The Zero Theorem. It stars everybody’s favorite Nazi, the great Christoph Waltz. Very original script about a man waiting for a telephone call that will give meaning to his life. Some other things happen as well. It’s profound and funny in more or less equal measures. We’re going to have fun. I’ll keep you posted as the cast expands.

PREVIOUS, MONDAY, 12:34 PM: EXCLUSIVE: Christoph Waltz has been set to star in The Zero Theorem, the next film to be directed by Terry Gilliam. Waltz will play Qohen Leth, an eccentric and reclusive computer genius plagued with existential angst who works on a mysterious project aimed at discovering the purpose of existence—or the lack thereof—once and for all.

It will be the next film for Waltz, who, after winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Inglourious Basterds, has been shooting Tarantino’s follow up, Django Unchained.

Scripted by Pat Rushin, The Zero Theorem is set in a world that seems right in Gilliam’s wheelhouse. Living in an Orwellian corporate world where “mancams” serve as the eyes of a shadowy figure known only as Management, Leth (Waltz) works on a solution to the strange theorem while living as a virtual cloistered monk in his home—the shattered interior of a fire-damaged chapel. His isolation and work are interrupted now and then by surprise visits from Bainsley, a flamboyantly lusty love interest who tempts him with “tantric biotelemetric interfacing” (virtual sex) and Bob. Latter is the rebellious whiz-kid teenage son of Management who, with a combination of insult-comedy and an evolving true friendship, spurs on Qohen’s efforts at solving the theorem. But these visits turn out to be intentional diversions orchestrated by Management to keep control of Qohen’s progress. Bob creates a virtual reality “inner-space” suit that will carry Qohen on an inward voyage, a close encounter with the hidden dimensions and truth of his own soul, wherein lie the answers both he and Management are seeking. The suit and supporting computer technology will perform an inventory of Qohen’s soul, either proving or disproving the Zero Theorem.

The has already started pre-production in Romania, and the European production will start shooting at Mediapro Studios on October 22nd. Dean Zanuck (Road to Perdition, Get Low) is producing and Waltz will also co-produce. Dean Zanuck will see to fruition a project that was started by his late father, the iconic Richard Zanuck. Voltage Pictures will handle worldwide sales in Toronto. Waltz is repped by ICM Partners and Gilliam by London-based Jenne Casarotto.